Inside an "intelligent" emergency lamp (with schematic).

[@lmmartinez97]

You've taught me more about circuit design and reverse engineering than I've learnt in 4 years in college. Ty Clive, really.

[@ipunkpwt]

now even simpler with Driver on Board (DOB). controller uses BP68xx series IC and QW2886 rechargeable IC.

[@raykent3211]

Years ago there was a beginners kit for a clap triggered battery light. Very simple and great if you find yourself suddenly plunged into total darkness. May be unsuitable for lederhosen wearing thigh slappers who like to dance in complete darkness, but I imagine that's a small demographic and they could always take the batteries out. It doesn't detect venereal disease, btw.

[@rangawarunakulasuriya4225]

Thanks for the video. I made your reverse engineered circuit. Working fine, Made exactly a light like that. Thanks for clear explanation and clarity.

[@edupals6652]

කොහෙන්ද පාර්ට්ස් ගත්තේ?

[@rangawarunakulasuriya4225]

​@@edupals6652 Colombo 1st cross street

[@edupals6652]

@@rangawarunakulasuriya4225 Thank you..

[@georgestewart5879]

Nice light, and because of your videos, I understood the the explanation of how it works. Thanks Ciive, I've learned so much from watching you and had a bloody good laugh along the way.

[@davidk6271]

Will you be reading us a spooky story later Big Clive?

[@Nikkes02]

Would listen

[@reseausalsadream2691]

Would listen too!

[@Admiral_Jezza]

This needs to be done.

[@tncorgi92]

I loved his story about the bugganes on the Isle of Man. "Chased by the Manx Buggane at Dusk"

[@Miata822]

Fran reads us some Poe after the latest Franlab video, but maybe that's what you are referring to.

[@meindertverhoeven4328]

To improve readability of roughly engraved text on components, you can wet it with a little bit of fluid, e.g IPA, in combination with a proper light source.

[@louislectric]

Thank you for clarifying this. I may not understand the very technical parts of it but by your explanation I get the general idea of how it works.

[@BillyNoMates1974]

that was interesting viewing. good explanation of the circuit. i had to watch the battery charging and led section again to understand it. very clever

[@isoguy.]

Sir Clive, has a sort of ring to it. Maybe a new LED circuit icon could be a circle with SBC in it named after "Sir Big Clive" for services rendered to the field of electronics and computing. Just writing off to the department for new years honours listing, Westminster, London.

[@Nono-hk3is]

I love this deep dive into note completing circuit.

[@docthebiker]

Thanks for immediately answering my question about using it as part of a bank of recessed lights. I'll go with a "power cut switched" rechargeable torch.

[@iamdarkyoshi]

Ebay has plenty of those transistor/ESR/everything testers Look for the rechargable one with the colour LCD, it can test zeners up to 30V IIRC

[@AndrewGillard]

Ooh, good call! Those transistor tester devices have to have a special boost circuit to be able to test Zeners (they're all based on an open design from the mikrocontroller.net website & forum, for those who aren't aware. Originally I'm pretty sure that website said "feel free to make your own, but please don't sell them", so the Chinese sellers were violating that licence, but more recently they seem to have surrendered to the flood of Chinese clones and now they're just saying "whatever, sell it if you like, just please link back to this website" - and the Chinese sellers aren't doing that, either :) But here's the article discussing it, with links to download manuals, firmware, schematics, etc.: www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/AVR_Transistortester ), and that "rechargeable w/ colour LCD" model is the first I've seen that can actually test Zeners at all. It seems to be going under the model number "LCR-TC1". I've actually been considering making my own (with a custom-designed, 3D-printed case, and custom Li-Ion charge/boost circuitry - it's easy to buy DW01 [protection], 8205 [dual-MOSFET], TP4056 [charge] and MT3608 [boost] ICs, e.g. from LCSC), partly because it'll be fun, and partly because the Chinese clones tend to not use the best components (shock!). The manual states "The resistors R1 to R6 are critical for measurements and this 680Ω and 470kΩ resistors should be measurement type resistors (tolerance of 0.1%) to get the full accuracy.", but those six resistors in both of the transistor tester units I have have a much worse tolerance than 0.1%! SMD resistors aren't really labelled with a tolerance, but one of mine has tolerances around 1-2%, while the other had tolerances around 5% (a couple of those resistors didn't even fall within 5%!). Given that 0.1% resistors are only around 20-30p each in small quantities, replacing those is a cheap and easy accuracy upgrade! The manual also recommends "a LM4040-AIZ2.5 (0.1%), a LT1004CZ-2.5 (0.8%) or a LM336-Z2.5 (0.8%) as voltage reference", but my units both use TL431 references, which have a tolerance of 0.5%, 1% or 2% depending on their grade, but mine are definitely the 2% ones! LM4040-AIZ2.5 ICs are somewhere around £1 each in low quantity and you only need one, so that's probably a good upgrade idea, too :) Another option for testing Zeners (and moderate-voltage LED packages) is something like my HoldPeak HP4070C tweezer multimeter, which runs on only two AAA cells but can tell you the voltage of LEDs/Zeners up to 30V (possibly dropping a bit as the cells die). It can even get a 100W LED to glow gently :) That's not terribly expensive, either.

[@lolocfmjpwp0kjcxsa]

Andrew, your article link URL includes a closing parentheses, which fails.

[@AndrewGillard]

@@lolocfmjpwp0kjcxsa Oh urgh, thanks for pointing that out! I've edited my comment to fix it :) Sensible, good-quality URL-matching algorithms look for a balanced set of parentheses so that they catch things like Wikipedia URLs that include parentheses, but DON'T start trying to include a trailing close-parenthesis when a URL is included inside and at the end of parentheses for other reasons, as was the case here. To be fair, matching URLs in code isn't simple, BUT it's very much a solved problem and you'd think that Google, of all companies, would have engineers who could figure that one out ;)

[@raymondmucklow3793]

That would be a fun prank, if I understood correctly. Get a few of these install them on the same house switch and when you turn the light out they would come back on. Great video Sir Clive. 🇮🇲 I was looking for a "tips the hat emoji" but couldn't find one, out of time gotta wake the teenager up for school. Cheers from kansas. Have a good one.

[@tonyhong20]

Nah these would only work like that if whoever you're pranking needs to do something like kill the power to work on something. How Clive explained it is that if the switch is on and there's power feeding through, then it will light up off mains power. If the switch is off then it would stay off since the circuit between the light and the switch is broken. BUT, if the power is out and the switch is on, then the light will see that the circuit is complete but no power is coming from the mains so it will run off the battery

[@aoifebakunin1966]

@@tonyhong20 Clive did mention that if there is another lamp on the circuit after the switch, say if you have two ceiling fixtures in a room, the light will activate even if the switch is off. It just looks for continuity between the rails when there's no power. If there's something else in the circuit that provides a path, it seems like it will happily use it.

[@therobb5738]

Raymond Mucklow If you use one of these bulbs on a circuit with two way switches, it'll get confused and eventually turn back on. Found that out the hard way. Kinda creepy when you turn one switch off and 5 minutes later, the light turns back on.

[@mthompson965]

If your house is wired so that a live wire runs near the lamp, it will come on when the switch is off. I'm using a 2-way switch in my living room and I had to take out the batteries or the light wouldn't go out. Same in my bedroom.

[@alexanderbrust2989]

That's a really smart circuit.

[@therobb5738]

I have this exact same bulb, and I LOVE it! I really want to deck my whole house out with these.

[@pierreuntel1970]

I also have such kind of LED lamp a long time ago but it's not that clever, it use 2 set of LED, 1 connected through capacitor dropper to the main which also charge the li ion battery, the other set of LED connected to the sensing circuitry and get power from the battery and it's only work if there's no AC power. Also the battery is not protected in anyway, it get charge directly through a capacitor dropper with a zener capping the voltage

[@jasperizak123]

I have the same thing and the capacitor always blows up

[@GadgetBoy]

I'm going to do my best to make sure that symbol gets spread about.

[@willrobbinson]

last few seconds showed u could do the (uncle fester,adams family) trick by lighting bulb in mouth trick !!!!!!, anyway it's quite clever & useful in blackouts. good one

[@twocvbloke]

It'd be fun to see you build a custom version of one of these that could be adapted to power other LED lights (not just white cobs, but things like poundland LED strings and suchlike), just 'cos... :D

[@CZbanhof]

The idea behind this is actually damn smart!

[@petehiggins33]

I think Clive's circuit of the power converter at 6:27 has a minor error. The control chip has to have a ground connection in order to sense the voltage across the current sense resistor. So there is probably a missing link between the anode of that bottom diode and the negative rail.

[@lostjohnny9000]

Thou art the wizzard of electrickery. You could pull magic bulbs from your wizzard's sleeve and make them light up wirelessly.

[@CZbanhof]

Not sure why I originally read it "from your wizard's ass"... Oh wait it's Clive 😁

[@ciarfah]

That's awfully poetic, I love it

[@mecamaster]

I got one of these from Ebay, and it burned up smoking out the room in fact. In fact, I think I bought one about a year ago because I saw you take a look at one that was sold as a camping lamp sorta deal.

[@bigclivedotcom]

There are different versions,and some are terrible.

[@BenjaminEsposti]

Interesting, is it a hidden emergency smoke signal feature?

[@Delta-gx1gh]

Teach me everything you know

[@1marcelfilms]

I add protection circuits to the battery myself. And swap warn white leds.

[@arindammondal3456]

Nice explanation. Sensing circuitry connect with SMPS circuitry through Live and Neutral connection. So when there is no power, sensing circuitry get a path through the SMPS circuitry and the LEDs will on using battery . In this situation if user switch off the light then also LEDs will be on. How to resolve this issue?

[@bigclivedotcom]

The lights can only be used on their own after a switch, or with identical polarity if more than one is used.

[@knighthh]

perfect design with inteligent design , i hope i could find it at home

[@piratetv1]

I'm glad you've covered this bulb. I see them at the hardware store and think, " how the hell does it know whether the power is out or youv'e turned the switch off"

[@draketungsten74]

Magic.

[@joechief2456]

FWIW there is a symbol for LEDs, and it's almost exactly what you came up with :)

[@AndrewGillard]

I hate to be that person, but... source? Not least because I want to know exactly what it looks like! :) All I can find via Google is the standard LED symbol (diode with the beams of light) and its common variant (as before, but enclosed in a circle), but both refer only to a single LED die, not to what Clive was trying to indicate, which was an entire LED lamp module, complete with driving circuitry and numerous LED dice :(

[@joechief2456]

@@AndrewGillard Oh, right, I didn't realise that's what he meant. Thought it was odd that Clive wouldn't know the symbol for LED. Don't mind me and my poor comprehension skills haha

[@CyberlightFG]

I like these more complex teardowns.

[@mrgatez2007]

There is a easier way I have found that works great " a pink sharpy " tip rubbed on the chip brings up the writing better than thermal compound !!! Hope that helps reading small serial numbers on just about any chips or even the neon sharpies work just as well and feel free to try it and use it any of your videos, Mr gatez

[@Henry00]

Perhaps you should consider setting up a second, possibly inferior camera from a different angle that can record over a longer period of time. That way you catch all the fun explosions. This isn't the first time where you paused the video and ended up not recording the fun parts.

[@Mark1024MAK]

The eBay search phase for the test tweezers that Clive uses in this video is “SMD chip test clip multimeter meter tweezer lead probe”.

[@electroumit]

You are great as always. Thanks.

[@gcewing]

The symbol for an LED lamp should be a circle with the Chinese character for "light" in it. According to Google Translate this is 光. which even looks like it has rays of light shining out of the top.

[@thehappylittlefoxakabenji8154]

I think the symbol should be a circle with a diode as you have drawn but the arrows of light should be all around the circle !

[@BoB4jjjjs]

I like it, shame you didn't give the listing for it, but then the rice shoots up! Nice on Clive.

[@jmm1233]

guess these would be useful for communal lights and those exit lights in the exit signs

[@Magneticitist]

I always thought they put tuned tick tester circuits in there to detect AC along the neutral and auto switches the light on when not detecting anything.

[@bdf2718]

The choice of 100K rather than 1M might be to give a short interval of fading light. With 1M the DW01 might chop the output and give an "Oh shit, it's gone out, the battery must have run down, why didn't it warn me?" Whereas with the 100K you might get an obvious ramp-down. Maybe.

[@phonotical]

The big Clive symbol for an led lamp, doodle of a big led, coloured totally black

[@DumahBrazorf]

We want to see Clive doing the Uncle Fester bulb thing! It's on topic 'cause is Halloween!

[@johnmorgan1629]

How about the circle, with a short T coming at either end, one with an extra short right angled hook at one end of top of the T, with two arrows in the middle. This encompasses, the anvil in the 'bulb' type LEDs and the connections in the 'chip' style, along with the simple circuit diagram.

[@PowerScissor]

What are the fire hazards of having 18650's buried all over house. I feel like they could turn a simple house fire into a much more powerful one, no?

[@bigclivedotcom]

Not really. The biggest issue with 18650s is the energy they store and not the lithium itself, which is a tiny amount diffused in a carrier. They could definitely cause a fire if they failed while fully charged, and if they were involved in a fire and started failing they would probably add a bit to the flames, but generally speaking the risks associated with lithium cells are grossly exaggerated. So much so that they actually make headlines when one does cause a fire.

[@brainndamage]

Fires are usually caused by punctures, gross overcurrent, shorts, overcharging or overheating. These faults are unlikely in a circuit like this, but much more likely in a mobile phone or electric vehicle.

[@PowerScissor]

I wasn't meaning they would start a fire (Although it's possible). Just the fact they are most likely kept 100% charged for long periods, so if there ever was a fire theres all these fully charged energy cylinders everywhere for the fire to find. Highly unlikely I know...but it would make me nervous a little.

[@B-System]

@@PowerScissor A fully charged 18650 doesn't have much more stored energy than a can of hairspray, and not much of that energy is directly useful to a fire. It does present a mild ignition hazard, but being safely ensconced in a lamp should keep it fairly safe from mechanical damage.

[@Anvilshock]

@@brainndamage Punctures and shorts? No problem. Just look at how they stuff board and cell into the smaller versions of these; the through-hole solder points really enjoy digging through the cell sleeving if not "properly" separated by the scrunched-up bit of mounting tape between the two …

[@lynncheetham1878]

Excellent video.

[@P25AES]

Would be cool to get a couple 115v models

[@ManIkWeet]

If you have trouble reading the description of a chip, put it on a flatbed scanner! ;)

[@richardgrier4721]

Good analysis, I think.

[@dirkbonesteel]

Zener Diode brought back memories and a question. Does Lucas still design electrical systems for Brittish cars that catch fire every other month?

[@charlie123866]

this would be great for a greenhouse to add daylight via solar..you could have 100 of these to maximise light..im sure a solar charger will be enough even for those..what do you think clive.? let the poor winter sun run and store the battery power for an extra couple of hours run time after sunset?and the new led like samsung 301b have around 200 lumens per watt..2.4 micro jules per second..imagine that..full winterised greenhouse..even better in a sunken greenhouse where the ground is much warmer 8 foot below ground.

[@bigclivedotcom]

It could be adapted to charge from a solar panel.

[@ddtblack]

@@bigclivedotcom how would that be done? Using the common YX chips found in poundland devices? I think that would be a very interesting project for a video

[@brainndamage]

Several of these lamps in parallel (on the same circuit) would still work (no other types of lamps) if the polarity was equal on all of them, which isn't always guaranteed with Edison bases (though it should be, neutral on the outside)

[@bigclivedotcom]

It would also rely on the internal polarity connection of the lamps.

[@Richardincancale]

19:00 Tongs ya bas! That was everywhere in the 1980s in Glasgae - is it still a thing?

[@bigclivedotcom]

It's just one of those Glasgow things. Every time I hear the word tongs I tend to add ya bas in my mind.

[@Richardincancale]

I worked there for four happy years - implementing File Transfer Protocol and the program to queue files for transfer. They were called (imaginatively) FTP and FTQ - also seemed to be popular tags around the city :-)

[@lordmuntague]

@@bigclivedotcom I suppose our Scouse equivalent would be "Two Dogs sock robber!". Loses a lot in translation...

[@tmdrake]

I love reverse engineering...better than foward engineer... cost me $ to look at circuits...

[@evgenyfedorchenko9079]

Thank you very much for the video. Do you think it's possible to use this device to connect AirWick Freshmatic instead of LED part?

[@bigclivedotcom]

You can get air fresheners with a PIR sensor.

[@khronscave]

That "M7" diode in the snubber network... Isn't that supposed to be a high-speed (fast recovery) diode? "M7" is the SMD 1N4007. so likely not all that suited for the purpose.

[@bigclivedotcom]

It would probably help to use a faster diode.

[@khronscave]

@@bigclivedotcom Surely they were already getting a bulk discount on those ES1J's anyway (but maybe they're that much more pricey than the M7's?).

[@petehiggins33]

The snubber diode doesn't really need to be a fast diode because at the time it is reverse biassed it is not carrying any significant forward current and so there is no charge stored in the junction and therefore no reverse recovery time.

[@alexatkin]

I bought a couple of these that seem to use a different PCB and how bright they light up appears to depend on the resistance of the circuit, as it struggles to come on from just touching the contacts and the brightness varies based on how hard I touch it. More troubling is they won't turn off, just go dull. They seem to somehow be picking up continuity on half the wave when switched off, causing them to flicker at half brightness instead of turning off. :( Any ideas what they did to the circuit that might cause this? I can't get a good shot of the PCB without dismantling them and will have to wait to see if the seller wants them back before doing that.

[@bigclivedotcom]

It may be down to capacitive coupling on switch wires, especially with multi way switching.

[@vivalesvegas]

I noticed an extra space next to the three parallel diodes. Could that be for 110 volt areas, or possibly they found they just didn’t need a fourth?

[@bigclivedotcom]

It was probably either for a higher power version or possibly to deliberately increase the combined forward voltage of all three diodes by increasing the current through them.

[@emolatur]

The IC is a SD6601STR, from Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics. bit.ly/2Pt9BBn for the datasheet. I have it saved in case the link gets broken. The PDF won't open in Google Chrome, but Firefox opened it.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Ooh, your right. It doesn't open in Chrome. (I'm on a Chromebook right now.)

[@aopstoar4842]

Mr Big: A mouse trap with a fall bridge. Mouse walks into compartment with cheese at the end of a corridor. When mouse is in middle of corridor, an IR sensor in the ceiling and a motion sensor goes high and the logical circuit sends electrical signal to a inductive coil that opens the floor and mouse falls down into a chamber. Floor closes again and 1. Either mouse is poked to death by a death pick 2. A normal spring trap kills mouse How design electrical circuit? It will be a success 100 moustrap.

[@richbooth8948]

Aop Stoar Way too complicated. In the corridor there should be an IR beam when broken drops the floor. Whole thing sits on a bucket of water where the mouse drowns, or without water hold the rodent for rehoming. Don't forget to send royalty checks my way.

[@lolocfmjpwp0kjcxsa]

Already exists on eBay, but mechanical not electrical. Uses the mouse weight against an adjustable strength magnet. It hangs on the side of 5 gallon pall with a couple inches of water, like "walk the Planck" off pirate ship.

[@aopstoar4842]

@@richbooth8948: But complication is the name of the modern game. If you can charge customers like Apple for a simple, complicated machine then you should do it says market logic. Even if it costs one dollar more to produce, you can get paid fifteen dollars more just for the 100 % efficiency and convenience and "smart trap". Combining a motion sensor with the IR sensor is to avoid false positives. Heat without movement or movement without heat. German engineering in da house, ja. V dub.

[@aopstoar4842]

@@lolocfmjpwp0kjcxsa : I already have built my own walk the Planck length trap that works fine. The problem is the bucket. I want a lower dedicated trap and a mincing machine so I can sell the meat to restaurants later. "Ecological rodent meat" is the new haute cuisine among hipsters. The fall have to be on the long side to save height, instead on the short side for these ordinary fall traps. Thanks for your input!

[@crazygeorgelincoln]

Curious about the product recall schinanagans.

[@bigclivedotcom]

I took apart a couple of emergency lights from a UK supplier and they weren't even remotely to UK standards. I released the video on Patreon and got a call from the director of the company the next day saying that they were recalling them.

[@apbosh1]

It's all about the circuitry.

[@AI_VR_Reality]

Please make a video on blinking led bulb problem

[@FireballXL55]

RE your zener test I set my PSU current limit to 10mA to measure the voltage, that assumes the circuit does not draw too much of that.

[@brainndamage]

That wouldn't save the zener if due to a bad connection the PSU's internal output caps got charged up to a higher voltage, then when the connection was remade again would dump the whole charge through the zener, current limited only by the resistance of the wires (which is what Clive described as being the case). I usually test zeners with a fixed supply voltage and a series resistor, no danger of overcurrent that way.

[@bigclivedotcom]

The sudden pulse of current usually makes the zener go dead short and it's all downhill from there.

[@FireballXL55]

@@bigclivedotcom I do it all the time with my bench PSU and have never blown one yet so I guess my PSU does not have any large caps on the output. So I just tested it and I chose a 55C7V5 zener set my PSU to 5mA at 30V and at 10s intervals connected it across the zener at least 20 times and each time it came back with the value 7.68V .

[@FireballXL55]

@@brainndamage See my reply to big Clive

[@draketungsten74]

@@bigclivedotcom And then say "bye bye" to Suzy and Mikey (processors).

[@akungue1264]

When the lamp didn't work, what the first thing we should check?

[@lwilton]

Now I just want to find one with a photocell to turn off during the day, as well as be an emergency light.

[@bdf2718]

Aldi sold something better (and, it turned out a lot worse). A rechargeable torch (flashlight for Merkins). Magnetic coupling for charging. Also an emergency light (but unlike this one couldn't know if the socket was switched on or off, so powered up anyway). Also a proximity light, but only in the dark. Pull it out of the charger and the torch switches on automatically. Really, really nice. Except... Except something about the design and/or the Li-Ion button cells meant the cells swell up and fail after about a year.

[@anononomous]

You can get ones with a solar charger that charges even when off, but I can't see one with daylight detection. These days cheap Chinese LED devices seem to obey something similar to rule 35 of the internet though (but for electronics) so if it doesn't exist already I'm sure it'll turn up at some point :-)

[@bdf2718]

@@anononomous Rule 36: If it doesn't exist, the Chinese will soon create it and it will be cheap. But it will be shoddy, dangerous crap.

[@Tryin2FlyII]

BigClive - Question If you have a second - I want to put soft white LEDs under my kitchen cabinets and was wondering what type of power supply you would suggest? the one that has the transformer like the one shown here ( but with out battery back up) or just a capacitor dropper type? you have good things to say about both so I am not sure what to build and use ??? I would like it to run off of 120V mains? You are the best electronics teacher EVER IMO!!! and I have learned a ton from watching you but still very cautious & unsure on my own lol Thanks for everything you post !!!

[@bigclivedotcom]

If using LED tape I'd only suggest a 12V DC LED power supply. Preferably bought from a reputable supplier. The capacitive droppers are only suitable for low current circuits and provide no isolation from the mains supply.

[@ernestmurphy3898]

Very well done explantion. While the lithium will work for a couple of hours would a standard 9 volt battery plugged in, work? or 12 volt auto battery? Thank you for your time.

[@vonabal]

I just came across this looking for this very same answer Ernest ...hoping you can help me out as you had this issue 4 years ago 😂

[@1973retrorabbit]

I wonder what the heat rating of the battery is... I replace a lot of batteries in emergency lights (normally NiMH or NiCd) that have died due to heat inside the fitting (normally rated at 60°C) Obviously, the heat also kills the ballast/ charger packs too (normally rated at 55°C)... I'm not just picking on batteries here but I am curious about the odds of the battery exploding in the base of the lamp.

[@electrolab9913]

Do you have it installed? Also do you advice anyone using it as regular lamp, or might it be dangerous due to the 18650 inside?

[@bigclivedotcom]

It does have a full set of proper protection chips for the lithium cell. But there are other lamps which have less ideal circuitry.

[@americanrebel413]

Very interesting! I've always wanted to know how to repair and/or make circuit boards, I've been intrested in electricity As long as I can remember, Thank you for sharing I really get a lot from this! Your channel just happened to come up in my KZbin feed, I am now subscribed, I live in Middleburg Florida USA. God-bless my friend.

[@americanrebel413]

PS. Love your accent!

[@avejst]

Nice, thanks for sharing :-)

[@BrendanOrr]

I've always wondered if you keep your CliveCAD™ photos in a file somewhere for future reference or if you bin them after the video has gone up.

[@hrnekbezucha]

I noticed you moved on to using Pilot instead of Sharpie. How are you finding the new V-Sign?

[@mattburrows2615]

Mmm- if there were two emergency lamps would they load each other and stay on or could that solve two lamp circuit not switching off?

[@Ali235-j5c]

Thank you sir from...mount K2 Pakistan skardu

[@DreitTheDarkDragon]

You might look at this timer - www.solight.cz/pictureprovider.aspx?z=550&path=d:/abra/web/userdata/images/storecards/dt03.jpg - many brands seem to just put their logo on it, but I guess it will be all same inside. I have exactly this one, type DT03 by Solid (probably old name for Solight?). I got it from my previous job where it exploded after about three years of use. Display was blank when I plugged it in, so I decided to open it up. Inside were pieces of exploded battery and voltage on its pins was much higher than rated voltage of battery - if I remember correctly, they just use RC cell to get lower voltage from mains, then diode to rectify it and resistor to limit charging current. And that's it, no voltage regulation, it's connected directly to battery, because battery will of course always stay at its rated voltage...until it explodes. I put capacitor instead of battery, plugged timer in and....display blinked and was blank again. So I unplugged whole timer and after few seconds (as capacitor discharged to certain level) numbers appeared on display! WTF? So I threw away capacitor and instead put two diodes in series to limit voltage to about 1.5V as original battery had. It's not perfect, but numbers can be seen from certain angle and it works perfectly (except of battery backup of course). I was using it after this silly modification to control christmas lights on house for few years :) I don't remember everything correctly, but that timer is still sitting on my table and I might make some photos if you wanted.

[@bigclivedotcom]

NiMh cells can be trickle charged continuously, and in this application will generally limit the voltage to around 1.5V.

[@DreitTheDarkDragon]

Oh, they can? I thought it's bad practice, especially when that one exploded.

[@danhard8440]

do you have the make and model of this? I'm in the Philippines and there is areas here where they just love to kill the power for the whole city lol this would be good but maybe with a couple more 18650,s run in parallel so it will last longer

[@bigclivedotcom]

There's no real make or model. I'll add a generic search link to the description for eBay.

[@danhard8440]

ok thanks Clive :)

[@crimsonhalo13]

"There's trickery here...." ... 12 moths say it's the fact you just murdered their lamp.

[@davidlatter3948]

So if the switch is off and the power is out it won't turn on automatically will it.

[@AndrewGillard]

Correct. That's the whole point of it :)

[@davidlatter3948]

@@AndrewGillard I would like to use for power outs but if you need to turn on switch then sort of defeat the idea of battery backup. Will just get some wired in ones that just turn on without user intervention.

[@raykent3211]

Yes, it doesn't appeal to me. Most modern light switches are two way for staircases with a switch top and bottom. I'm thinking there should be a way of wiring one so that a circuit will detect whether there's a supply to either pole. Only if the supply fails to both does the battery light get triggered. A photocell could be added so that it's only triggered if dark and the power goes out. Seems simple, I haven't thoroughly thought it through, ought to work though, cough....

[@mikeladd5880]

The whole idea is not to change any house wiring and work without any modifications.

[@CyberlightFG]

What's the point of your light switching on if you don't need it? It's empty before you really need it.

[@rriflemann308]

Could this be the modern version of the Uncle Fester novelty lamp?

[@tangerinq]

Hey Clive, an idea for a small project here. I'm going to modify my headband magnifying glass (that has a built-in LED designed to work with alkaline batteries). The idea is to make it rechargeable with a 18650 type Li-Ion cell. So I've been thinking of a specific pre-built board that has all the intelligent charging circuitry, as well as protection and voltage step-up built in. I am going to order it from aliexpress, and I've been wondering whether you would be interested to receive a couple of these boards and make a reverse engineering video about them or a small project. Sorry if this is not the correct way to contact you. P. s. love your sense of humor :-)

[@fahadjaiswalrajput575]

sir can you please tell me what is the value of D7?

[@MazeFrame]

I wonder if you could use that lamp for a magic trick. Have some magic circuit, connect the lamp to it and it lights.

[@countzero1136]

Where did you find those neat test-probe tongs?

[@bigclivedotcom]

eBay as always. They have everything.

[@phonotical]

What are there holes next to R8, don't look like it's for a resistor

[@bigclivedotcom]

They're for connecting through to a track on the other side of the PCB.

[@boonedockjourneyman7979]

Genius.

[@charlie123866]

so if i had an inverter 220/240v i could power and charge all of them as long as theres enough juice to get some trickle charge throughout the day..? for instance living in spain which is quite sunny even in winter.?what output are they please clive?

[@charlie123866]

i would need a constant charge of around 12/13 volts for my leisure battery..then the voltage will drop as they drain and recharge the next day..the energy gathered could then be discharged after the sun goes down but i imagine would need some sort of automatic flip switch like a dawn to dusk sensor

[@morelenmir]

I feel like I am starting to regain _some_ of my electronics knowledge--I _almost_ understood good chunks of that circuit! Zenner diodes and Schottky diodes are fascinating things and I recall using the former in a powersupply I built. However I am pretty certain I never did any projects with either FET's or MOSFETs, so that is an area I will have to look at more carefully. They seem to be voltage-based transistors as opposed to those used on the circuits I remember that always required normal npn/pnp transistors which were current based and not employed in the same type of roles. I suspect FETs and MOSFETs have come to prominence due to the rise of digital electronics where an IC pin can be on or off at either TTL 5V or CMOS 3.3V logic levels and therefore directly switch a MOSFET on or off? Is there any chance you could do some more kit assembly videos Clive? I really enjoy those and have learned a *lot* from them as well.

[@PsiQ]

morelenmir yep, mosfets are kinda charge switched like a small capacitor, BUT if you reach higher frequencies, pwm dimming, dc-dc converters, you need to charge/discharge the mosfet gates as fast as possible to get to the low RDSon values... soooo you kinda get back to a current based design. Nevertheless i built some nice 12 .. 24V pwm designs with an n-fet (buz11 or irl3803) which worked without additional drivers just fine up and over 1khz pwm switching frequencies. edit: ne555 pwm with mosfets the buz11 is a really old school nfet which likes gate voltages of 10V, but also works kinda goid at 5V, whereas the irl3803 is intended more for logic levels, so 5V gate is fine but needs higher gate charge for a ridiculous low rds-on. you need to find a sweet spot with gate voltage and gate charge. Also lastly a "lazy guy hint": if you look at the profet series, they are protected mosfets with integrated high side switch circuit, and kinda only need power + logic on/off signal to switch, but are not that fast. my favorite but expensive one is the BTS555, fully protected, which even has current sense and over 150Amps switching ability...

[@morelenmir]

@@PsiQ I shall give that profet a look over--150A through a component that small is astonishing! I assume it has to require a heatsink not to immediately go thermonuclear with that kind of current? On the other matter, I have noticed that MOSFET's generally seem to be quite pricey, which was a bit of a surprize when compared to the npn transistors I was used to. You can get ten 2n3904's for the price of a single MOSFET from RadioSpares.

[@PsiQ]

morelenmir If youre going for the SMD sized "stupid" fets its getting cheaper, but i prefer to220 or similar easy to handle and cool parts. For the bts555 it has higher resistance depending on how the legs are bent, for "power in" the tab should be used. It kinda has the same resistance as the connected wires if done right... The trick for the bts555 is the integrated high side switch: normally a pfet is used to switch (+) to the load, load always connected to (-)/gnd. nfets are used to switch (-)/gnd so load is always connected to (+). Pfets have higher resistance by design, so with an internal dcdc converter they use an nfet on the (+) side with the "high side switch" to shift voltage levels. BUT the added circuit makes the switching a lot slower. I think i used the bts555 at 200Hz PWM with an NE555 to control a 500W car radiator fan. It will probably not work at 1khz, but i didnt notice warming up at 200hz.(see switch on/off times in datasheet). The buz11 (10V nfet), irl3803 (5V nfet) and irf4907 (10V? pfet) were the oversized fets i got for playing around, but no internal logic there. The buz11 will often work "good enough" at 5V for some Amps load...

[@rimparie3154]

I'm confused. There is a symbol already for LED ---l>|--(can't ascii art the emited lines), is there a real need for a led lamp symbol? What's the distiction?

[@bigclivedotcom]

It's to show it's an actual lamp as opposed to just an LED on its own.

[@raykent3211]

The symbol you give is for a single light emitting diode, a single semiconductor junction. What's usually meant by a "led lamp" may contain an unknown number of leds and unknown power circuitry. So there's a use to having a symbol for that. If you browse through the comments, someone has added a comment that the symbol is a Chinese character that looks like the Greek pi with three dashes coming out the top. Hope that helps!

[@Anvilshock]

@@bigclivedotcom I would suggest a similar approach as in the lazy FBR. A square (or a circle) with an LED symbol inside. Oh, and a polarity marker of sorts.

[@sheriefpalavacode9815]

Is available ON,OFF time setable light?

[@bigclivedotcom]

No timing function.

[@BedsitBob]

Is there a brief off period, in the event of a power failure, or does it remain lit?

[@bigclivedotcom]

There may be a brief dip.

[@Anvilshock]

@@BedsitBob These lights aren't exactly of shop-adequate brightness. I have a 15-Watt version, its regular output is about enough for, say, a storage room, not to mention its ugly light colour. An emergency or backup light at any rate.

[@BedsitBob]

@@Anvilshock At least you would be able to see enough, so as not to put your hand into the moving machine, in the sudden darkness.

[@CIS-5533]

Can you give me fully diagram of this circuit ?? Because i want to make it own.. just for learn

[@bigclivedotcom]

The schematic is included.

[@CIS-5533]

@@bigclivedotcom where is it?

[@inventor1v]

Hi Clive, I have a metal detector needing fixed if you fancy doing a youtube video on it? Happy to pay for parts and labour.

[@LegacyVision.]

Diode with 2 arrows coming off it, dumb but standardised.

[@chilledoutpaul]

Hi Clive, have you got a PO Box? Paulie from london

[@amanentertainment678]

Gerber File?

[@karinyafields9651]

Hi Clive, do you have a ebay listing for this lamp?

[@bigclivedotcom]

I've included a generic eBay search link in the description.

[@MdRifat-fr8ut]

bigclivedotcom I've seen that circuit in one of your videos parts list and circuit diagram and Gerber file and If you tell me they can buy it from a web site then I give you a hundred dollarsও Will give you Let me know if you agree

[@thomas316]

How long do they light under battery? 🤔

[@bigclivedotcom]

Not sure. I've not let one run for a long time, but I'd guess the intensity will gradually fall with the current as the battery drains and it could be quite a long run time.

[@NoEff3x]

i actually had one of these blow up in its socket after running for 2 hours continuously

[@bigclivedotcom]

That's intriguing. It would have been nice to see the insides after that.